In this episode of the Heal, Nourish, Grow podcast, founder Cheryl McColgan guides listeners through Day 3 of a 30‑day Healthy Habits Challenge, focusing on incorporating 10 minutes of daily movement. She frames the practice as a discipline‑building habit, emphasizing that consistency and repetition are more important than motivation. Cheryl explains why a modest 10‑minute window is effective for beginners and for those with existing routines, citing heart‑health guidelines (150 minutes per week) and the need to build up gradually. She highlights research showing exercise can be as effective as antidepressants for depression and anxiety, directing listeners to PubMed for further reading. Practical strategies are offered to overcome low motivation, such as the “5‑minute rule,” putting on workout clothes, and choosing any activity that gets the body moving. Personal anecdotes illustrate how strength training could have prevented past injuries. Cheryl also stresses the role of habit tracking, streaks, and gamification within the challenge, and ends with standard podcast calls‑to‑action and a medical disclaimer.
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Hey everyone. I'm Cheryl McColgan, founder of Heal, Nourish, Grow, and welcome to day 3 of the 30-day Healthy Habits Challenge. Today we're going to talk about movement. So even though you've already been doing that as a component of this challenge from day 1, I just wanna talk about the importance of it. Again, reminding you that discipline is just repetition and consistency. So even on days that we aren't motivated to move quite often, just knowing that it's a habit, making that commitment to discipline is enough to make it work. And so today you're just doing 10 minutes of movement. Maybe you're trying something different than the other days that you've already moved in this challenge. That's one thing I want to encourage you to do throughout the 30 days is you're doing your 10 minutes of movement per day. Say you, like, like I do, have already a regimen where you lift weights a few times a week. I happen to be doing 5, but whatever works for you. Actually, based on the research, just 2 days a week of strength training is enough, but we'll talk more about that at some other time. But so, for example, for me, I'm very bad about stretching and mobility, so that's the That's the kind of thing that I'm going to be doing for my 10 minutes a day for my movement. So I'm gonna keep my regular thing that I've already been doing on a consistent basis, and I'm going to add that in through the 30 days. So the minimum counts, you don't have to do more than 10, but just challenge yourself to do 10 minutes of whatever it does. So why this matters is obviously there's so many components of health, and I think that everybody has pretty much heard all of these things at this point, but for your heart health, You need to get your heart rate up every day. I think that the recommendation now that is being said is 150 minutes per week. So we're just doing 10 minutes a day. We're not quite there yet. But what I want you to do is, again, encourage you to start slowly. You don't go from zero to a thousand instantaneously. You know, we need to build up practice, build up our heart health, build up our heart strength to get to those longer amounts of activity. And so if you're a person that doesn't move consistently on a daily basis now, Setting yourself up for failure is what's gonna happen if you say, I'm gonna walk for half an hour every single day when you've been doing nothing. It's just too much. That's the way that people, you know, get into these New Year's resolutions and don't make it very long because they, they bit off more than they can chew. So doing these small steps really helps. In addition, exercise is actually more effective than antidepressants for depression. Yes, you heard me say that right. Why every doctor and every psychiatrist and every psychologist does not promote this, it is in their literature. It is very clear that exercise is as effective as medication for depression and anxiety. Now, if you're on this medication, I'm not telling you to get off. I'm not a doctor. I'm not saying that it doesn't help you or that you don't need any of those things. Nobody's saying that, but consider, especially for certain types of depression, anxiety, that Exercise is just as effective. Studies have shown this time and again. So if your medication is not working for you, or if you've had to add on medications because it doesn't seem to be effective, consider that exercise might really be a great addition to your mental health and discuss that with your doctor. And like I said, there'll be some research links in this right here. I can't remember if those specifically were in this one, cuz I could put, I could put in there probably 100 links for each of these habits if I really, uh, wanted to, but I just wanted to keep it obviously brief so that you might actually look at them and read them. But if this is something you're interested in, just go to pubmed.gov and type in exercise and depression or exercise and anxiety. And you'll just see a whole huge, long list of research in this area. But the idea with the movement is we want to show up still when motivation is low, because like I said, we're not always gonna be motivated every day, but we can practice discipline every day. And my trick— and I used to be a runner. I'm not anymore, but I ran consistently for 17 years and, uh, my knees gave out. And if I had to do it all over again, I never would've done that kind of exercise. I would've, if I would've strength trained when I was younger, more consistently, I would've just been so much more happier and my body would be so much better off for it. But anyway, it was a, a practice of discipline and I did it whether I liked it or not. And what was really effective for me on days that I really didn't wanna go run, even though I was scheduled to go run, is I'd be like, okay, just, just put on your workout clothes and just go out for 5 minutes. And after 5 minutes, You still don't really wanna go, just come home. And I would mentally convince myself of that more times than I care to admit. And sure enough, I'd go out and I'd get started. And can I, you can guess probably the amount of times I turned around and came home, came home. That was like zero. I don't, I literally don't think I ever did that once I started, once I got out the door. And so that's another, just trick yourself. Sometimes it's even just, I'm just gonna put on my workout clothes. And then see what happens. So, um, you know, just find ways to do that, find ways to make it a habit. And again, this is a reason we're starting with 10 minutes, cuz it's so small that you almost can't, like, you can't convince yourself not to do it almost cuz it's so little. It's easy when I think of, like, if I think of I gotta go to the gym and I'm gonna be resistance training for the next hour, that's easy to convince myself out of. But if I convince myself, okay, I'm just gonna go to the downstairs gym and I'll just do a few things. And if I really don't feel like it, then I just won't finish again. That, that really never happens. The key is just getting yourself out the door or getting the shoes on or whatever it is with the movement you're gonna choose, getting in that cold pool. Once you're in there, you're gonna be fine. It's just getting to that point. Uh, so as always, the links to those studies will be in the tracker for you and in the email, and be sure to check off your habits. We wanna keep that consistency going and keep that little gamification of, you know, making the check mark, having your list add up. How many days in a row do you have a streak? Let's just keep it all going. So have a great rest of your day and I will see you again tomorrow.
This has been the Heal, Nourish, Grow podcast. Again, I'm Cheryl McColgan, founder of Heal, Nourish, Grow. You can find show notes for this episode at healnourishgrowpodcast.com. If you have feedback on today's episode or questions about the content, please email us at podcast@healnourishgrow.com. We'd love to hear from you. Be sure to sign up for our email list at healnourishgrow.com. And subscribe to the show with your favorite podcast player so you never miss an episode. Join us next time for more information that helps you live your best and healthiest life. Thanks for listening. Content on the Heal, Nourish, Grow podcast does not constitute medical advice. Content contained in the Heal, Nourish, Grow podcast is not intended as medical diagnosis or treatment. Neither the company nor its owner, Heal, Nourish, Grow LLC, nor any of the company's employees agents or guest speakers provide medical advice. The content provided on Heal, Nourish, Grow podcast is for educational and entertainment purposes only. Please consult your medical provider with any questions about what health practices are right for you.
